love conquers all, baby. just like you me. love conquers all. >> after you thank me for my patience. >> chuck todd is next. thank you for your patience. >> and the fight for control in 2014. what does this string of good news lately mean for both political parties's prospects. find out what a focus group thinks about our economic outlook. the latest on the winter storm that sacked the midwest and here in the mid-atlantic and northeast. millions prepare for yet more snow. a deep live into a photo fight at the white house. the obama administration is giving staff photographs access

to the president that media organizations should have too. good morning from washington. details coming up on preparations for the massive memorial service for nelson mandela in south africa. we are starting with the economy. there have been solid job numbers and major revision for the gd approximate, and a strong end to the week on wall street. it has a bunch of experts predictioning that a steadily improving economy is on the horizon for the coming year. what would that mean politically? health care and obstruction are the clubs are choice for the two parties. they are beating each other up over both issues and both could be problems as well. the economy is the wild card right now. right now things are looking up. on friday we got word that they push the average jobs growth to

189,000 a month. not great, but not horrible. it's an improvement over 2012. unemployment is down to 7% down 18/10 of a point from this time last year and the lowest since november of 2008. we saw a big revision that was up 3.6% in the third quarter. that's a half percentage point better than 2012. there is a caveat. a good portion came from businesses building up inventory. they may end up stocking up so much, they don't need to buy as much. there other green chutes here. the first double-digit year over year increase in seven years.

they were on the rise over this time last year. the seasonally adjusted rate of sales is the highest since 2007. looking forward, moody's said this. the recovery is gaining traction and the job market is improving. there signs that global growth is accelerating. pessimists will say we have seen this before. we saw an average of 262,000 jobs in the first quarter. by the second quarter, that number was cut in half. this seems different and wall street is acting like this is different. pushing above 16,000 for the first time in history. what does a healing economy mean for the cycle? for one thing it would be just about every incumbent governor running for reelection regardless of party. all would be able to run on a platform of improved economy and job outlook. this is a big help to republican

governors. baltimore in swing states. they make up the lion's share of those running again. what about on the federal level? does that help all incumbents or will democrats get the edge because it benefits to the president? the administration can blame the economy for driving down popularity. we have 7% unemployment and lowest of his presidency and his numbers are still at a record low. health care is to blame for that, but if the economy keeps getting better, it could end up curing some if not all of his political ills of late. consider this. president reagan's rating took a major hit in the fall and winter of 1986 as he was entangled in the iran contra scandal. he was able to weather the storm in part because of the economy. unemployment rate near 7% near the end of 1986 was down to 5.3% the end of 88 as he was

preparing to leave office. his approval rating went up to 63%. similar for ept president clinton. despite the lewinsky scandal that played out, his approval rating never dropped below 60%. the unemployment rate never rose above 4.7%. there was a failing economy and uneven creation in 06 and 07 that kept george w. bush from recovering from the damage done to him politically by katrina and the iraq war. could the economy do for president obama and cure him from his health care ills? the director the moody's and specializing in macro economics and economic indicator. let me start with are things as rosy as they look going into 2014? >> things are looking better. they might be labeling things as rosy. they have a long way to go

before it is healed. the mix of jobs is not what we like to see. a lot of jobs are being created in the industries and that's going to change in 2014. the stronger growth are falling into place. >> those conditions are what? that impact is fading and the job market is healing. the one wild card for 2014 will be conphi dechblts that's the one thing that has been the missing piece of this recovery. it has been the lack of confidence among consumers and businesses.

that will spent more freely. there is a lot of pent up demand. >> is this issue all traced to washington and the budget standoffs or other reasons for this lagging consumer confidence issue? >> at least recently a lot of the slump can be in washington and on sentiment for businesses and consumers. that uncertainty hasn't faded yet and that's one reason we will see and around 2%. that will fade in 2014 and assuming that lawmakers don't do more harm. as uncertainty fades, that should provide a lift to economic growth in 2o 14. this is business investment and we have been talking about this

for four years. is it that monthat gets investments? is it that the money you are looking at as being the next stimulus to this recovery? >> it is. businesses that are sitting on a mountain of cash, it's not the willingness or ability to hire and invest, but the willingness that has been lacking. i think as they see more and more consumers, they will start to take that leap of faith. most economic recoveries, we need consumers or businesses to take that leap of faith. i think over the next several months we will start to see businesses get more into the game. i think it is contagious. when they see one start to hire, others get left behind. you can create the self reinforcing cycle.

that will provide a tail wind through the economic recovery next year and we will be off and running in 2015 with the 4% gdp growth. >> let me ask you about health care. there some critics of the law who believe it's a drag on the economy. what say you? >> health care reform has pluses and minuses, but we revised the forecast for 2015 or 2016. we don't think it's going to have that big of an impact. we will have various impacts. >> i will leave it there. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> up next, remembering nelson

mandela, the president and mrs. obama are on the way to south africa right now for what is becoming a massive memorial, perhaps the largest in world history. heads of state will be gagering to pay respects. it will be a security nightmare for agents around the world. >> cans on across the country thanks to a wintry mix. we will have none other than jim cantore who will be live from the snowy northeast. a look ahead at the politics planner. >> it will bed bidens for them for a holiday celebration. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. once upon a time, an insurance clerk stumbled upon a cottage.

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>> world leaders are converging to pay respects to nelson 3457b della. they honor the former president there. they are asking citizens to keep their own tributes local since tomorrow's could be one of the largest gatherings of mourners in history. they are preparing a 90,000 seat stadium. nelson mandela will lie in state for three days and be buried sunday. more than 60 world leaders plan to attend. president obama and the first lady left less than an hour ago. former president bush and his wife laura joined them after

flying in from dallas overnight to avoid bad weather. hillary clinton is also on board air force 1. bill clinton is flying for rio where he was attending a clinton global initiative. the carters are flying in separately via a delegation that is with the elders in london. prince charles and david cameron will thereby as well as former prime ministers, tony blair, gordon brown and john major. leaders from chine a cuba, japan and mexico plan to be there too. security is a real concern and police are already running drills and shutting down streets. we haven't seen this kind of attendance since at least 1999 when dignitaries from 55 countries attended king hussein's funeral. leaders from more than 110 countries attended winston

churchill's in 1965. turning now to the wicked winter weather for much of the country, air force one had to take off in a chilly drizzle and foggy conditions. freezing rain has turned monday morning commute into a nightmare and stranded passengers on more than 1,000 flights. federal employees were told to report two hours late because of icy conditions and the fact that if any have kids in public schools, guess what. most are either delayed or closed around here. the winter storm pummelled this section of the pennsylvania turnpike. at least 56 vehicles were involved. the storm slammed into football fans, trying to get into the stadium. you can see the whole thing move up. they slid through the snow in fedex field and the ravens and vikings in that game and what we saw with the lions and the eagles. another storm system is headed this way.

that's where the weather channel's jim cantore joins me from andover, massachusetts. we have this ice storm out of the way, but this appears to be an appetizer. is that the best way to look at it? >> i think it was the main event and this is the dessert coming in. for much of the east. yesterday was a big time overachiever. we expected two to four inches in philly in parts of new jersey and northern virginia. we had as many as 13 inches. >> what was missed on this? >> i think sometimes you can get systems like this that are flat. it's not just one bigelow pressure system. sometimes the flat waves can give us a jolt. that just happened right over the northeast from about eastern

kentucky to the east coast. atlantic city we had snow yesterday. these are overachievers. they went under the radar in terms of the forecast. that said, there is another one coming through utah to texas tonight. same areas again into kentucky and tennessee. it will be moving too fast to get a lot of moisture. not a lot of huge amounts, but once it gets to the appalachians, there is a chance we can see three to six inches maybe in d.c. or to the north. baltimore is in the target zone for philadelphia. tomorrow morning's rush hour along the i-95 can be sloppy. with the last event here in boston, we are on the northern fringe. a mass pike southward will deal with the worst of this. we are going in the deep freeze like dallas after this. temperatures will be unseasonably cold. by mid-month, we will get out

from the west to the east. things will start to thaw out. when you go from 50s to 80s and just shift us into the arctic air, it's just havoc. you see the results because of that. >> that's for sure. jim cantore in andover. thank you, sir. >> you got it. my pleasure. >> picture this. we are taking a deep dive into a photo fight at the white house. photographers say the obama administration is shutting them out too often and they are ending up trying to frame the narrative themselves to give the president an advantage. that's next. first today's trivia question. which u.s. president was a full member of the white house new photographer's association? first person to tweet the correct consider will get the on air shout out. people don't have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant

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in today's deep dive, a dispute is playing out behind the camera. a media story. photographers assigned to cover the president are complaining that the white house is denying access to scheduled events, calling them closed press. then they end up releasing images shot by the president's hand picked photographer and sometimes they only find out that an event has been added to the schedule when the white house releases a photo. this is as much about who snaps the prettiest pictures. a job of the photographer has only been around for 50 years or so. the task is to not only make the president look good, but they generated some 20,000 pictures a week. use an was a white house photographer and granted behind the scenes access that no other photographer has. his work includes this snapshot of the situation room in the

raid it get osama bin laden and captured intimate moments about between the obamas themselves. the media said the white house has gone too far, barring them from evens they were traditionally able to cover in the past. the media argues they restrict the coverage to a single vantage point. in years past the photos were mostly used for historical purposes. today with the advent of twitter, flicker and instagram, they publicized in realtime putting them in direct competition. aer from jay carney read as surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist camera lens, officials are blocking the public from having ann independent view. the picture on the left is from the white house cress corps. on the right is the official white house photo.

this past august, they got a seat in front of the code yum for thea anniversary of the march on washington. they got the behind the scenes picture on the right. these are individuals from the president's visit to nelson mandela's cell. this picture of the president's visit to camp pentleton, he got pushed back and got a more intimate picture. here's the president speaking henry ford museum and sitting in the bus where rosa porks refuses to give up her seat. joining me now is associated press photographer and a member of the press corps. a white house photographer and a contributor to "time" magazine. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> you are not alone here. charlie, i look at the photos and the public might say so

what. the white house does some photos and you are in front of the scenes. what do they say? >> the public needs to be aware that these white house photographs that are released are taken by photographers that are hired by the administration to make the president look good. >> somebody edits the photos. when i say edits, it's not like the release in the zone. >> in the not about pete. there is not a wide view or different viewpoints of that event. it they say it's closed press and they release a photograph, that is the white house's view on the events that happened. >> the white house's bush back is hey, this is technology and we are still trying to figure out how this should work in the

media news cycle. what do you say to that? >> this white house has new tools and they are able to spread that because of new technologies because of twitter and facebook and they can post the photographs on their own flicker site. they have the ability to spread them faster. to a certain extent, it's on independent news organizations to look at this stuff and to filter it. what's happening now is these photographs are landing on screens or editor's desks around the world unfiltered. it's up to the news organizations to attribute their source. >> we have a policy when we have used a photo, we say the white house we leased this photo. >> yes. >> to the average viewer, they are just seeing the foo and they are not necessarily hearing that caveat every time we put it out

there. it is a version of propaganda. people hate that word, but that is what this can come taken too far. >> propaganda is a strong word, but the viewing public needs to be aware of that when they are seeing a white house photograph. it's a visual press release. they have to understand that this is the view that the white house wants you to see. when you have independent journalists and photographs covering the president, you are seeing many different views. >> hopefully we get the view of what the event is. that's what you are trying to show. >> exactly. >> you think news organizations, for instance and this is an internal debate we had. should we stop using white house photographs in realtime and say we will not use a photograph

that is to make it truly historical? >> there is a big difference between say the photograph of bin laden in the situation room. >> that's something you never would have been invited to. >> right. >> that is correct. >> there is evens like that 9/11 when it's clearly historic events. the presidential photographers are supposed to be historians and certain times when you cannot get independent press into the room. into the situation room for matters of national security and clearance. that's very different than the photographs you showed in our opening segment. what we have noticed with the press photographers that cover the white house is that we have significantly less access to this president than previous presidents. at the same time there has been a large increase in the number of photographs that they are releasing. we are not talking about bin laden and 9/11 events, but daily coverage. >> we are also not talking about

golfing with tiger woods either. that's not what we are talking about either. lunch with hillary clinton was an important event. their body language, they were going to make sure a photo that was released was perfect body language. >> we are talking about being able to photograph the president meeting with lawmakers and cabinet officials. since we brought this up and brought attention to it, has it gotten better? >> i would say we always make requests to the white house press office for access. during the shut down, there were some meetings he was having with democrats and republicans that we would ask for access. at times they accommodated us. it's a continual fight and we have been fighting this from the beginning. hopefully we will be more aware. >> this will continue to need

more. >> absolutely. >> you guys always are great to work with. you don't usually get too mad at us. i appreciate you getting it on the other side of the moving picture camera. up next, a fascinating look at what voters really think of washington. >> we are all confused. we don't know who it believe anymore. >> seems like nobody really wants to fix the problem. they are trying to make their pockets fatter. >> what voters in swing state ohio said about the economy and why they are so angry at washington. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. but if congress, the fcc, and the administration free up... more licensed wireless spectrum, we can empower more... people to innovate, create new technologies and jobs... and strengthen the economy. america is the world's leader in wireless.

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>> ohio is the ultimate bell weather home to the governor's

race as well and where the pollster went to take a group of swing voters in a forum by the university of pennsylvania school was clear from the focus group of 11 area voters that washington right now is about as popular as a-rod at a convention. they issued a faithing indictment of washington and everyone in it. >> describe how you think things are going today. >> poor. >> confusing. >> timid. >> disorganized. >> disappointing. >> broken. >> they are indicting washington. they are indicting the president and congress. the system doesn't work. as the system doesn't work, they

don't have an answer, about you they know what they hate. >> you could not walk away from this without saying the president is losing the vote of the swing voters many of whom he won. eight of the 11 participants were independents or independent leaners voted for the president in 2012. not one described themselves as proud or satisfied with him. instead they used words like mixed or disappointing. >> i was really exciting in the first term. >> he said he turned out to be another politician and another president. >> i think like all politicians worky talk the talk, but it's hard to walk the walk. >> he's a big disappointment. >> explain to me? >> he's not focused on creating more jobs. just fixing the economy and getting things going again and making people more prosperous. it's like the economy is sitting still.

>> there is no sense of strength that came out of this. it was a sense of somebody being around in the wind and facing all of those difficulties. the times were controlling him. >> realize this criticism is coming from supporters of the president. this was not a piling on from adversaries. when asked to describe the participants, they used inexperienced, cautious, timit and overwhelmed. congress saint patrick's day more anger and called it selfish and pleaded for parties to work together and they were cynical about what one called all the steak dinners. >> how would they be different if they lived in your shoes for three months. >> i hope they would be more aware of the people they are working for. >> i hope they care more about the people they represent. this is what upset me so much about the shut down before.

>> they were going to be more open minded and not so closed in on one train of thought. >> they would learn how to budge e. >> though the ohio voters had no trouble diagnosing the problem in washington, they were less clear about how to fix it and felt helpless when it came to punishing washington. some said term limits can help, but other ideas torah radically change the structure of washington seemed unfeasible to them. >> i got a new do. they only have one thing in common. get rid of everybody. of how many people will vote for the broom coalition candidate. if you love your congress person, that person is going out.

>> just two said they will support that. the only real silver lining, though they were sour about washington gridlock, the job market and health care felt optimistic and all felt hopeful about the e economy and felt it was improving. two of the 11 called it a fork in the road and said declining popularity is a bump that he may be able to overcome. we asked them to describe political figures with a single word. here's what they came up with. enthusiasm for hillary clinton was striking. they assigned her the strong leadership qualities that allude the president right now. >> hillary clinton? >> distrustful. >> energetic. >> strong. >> vivacious. >> first woman president. >> powerful. >> i would say powerful.

>> someone said chris christie. >> chris christie? >> ignorant. >> personality. >> indifferent. >> self serving. >> pass. >> got father. >> no opinion. >> uncaring. >> no political figure out more praise than first lady michelle obama. >> you can have one of these people as your next door neighbor. call it out. >> i want michelle obama. >> how many want michelle obama? i got four women all with hands up. >> hillary. >> you can't have both! >> none of them wanted president obama as their neighbor, but they wanted michelle obama. republican ad maker and susan page and fred yang and "the washington post" correspondent.

dan, i want to start with you. it's not surprising the purpose of the focus group is to get context to the poor poll numbers and the poor reflection that clearly the public has for washington there. what was striking to me was the lack of not knowing what to do next. not knowing how to punish washington. >> that frustration has been out there for several cycles. once we got past 08 was a historic election and one in which people felt good about and maybe the country could turn a corner, what we have seen since then is polarization is worse than ever and the anger at washington is deeper than ever. i think part of this is related to the lack of real recovery for so many people with the economy. there a series of elements and people don't know what to do and when it comes time for election, they go back to the two sides. the republican or the democratic side.

that outweighs so much else. even though the anger towards washington persists. >> brad and fred, you are big consumers of focus groups. anything in that group surprise you some. >> not at all. we see that everywhere whether it's a fly over country or the coast. i predict the voters will figure out how to take out anger on washington next year. it hurts republicans a lot less when voters are angry. they know republicans hate government. when government is disfunctional, they punish the people who like government. that's democrats. democrats start the programs. the current climate favors us quite a bit. >> i would argue that the government shut down, they are parts of the focus group in which the voters were very angry. >> i was surprised at how much legs the government had. i wasn't surprised on health care. >> to throw up your hands and

walk away from the problem. >> yeah. that was pretty clear. this larger thing going back to the ability to punish and the other thing was they figured out it's a washington problem that they are inially don't think has become a problem in their area. >> you see optimism as the economy gets better. the thing that that is interesting is can president obama recover? with the disappointment for people who supported him, if the health care website works better, is there a path back to him. for the president falling as far as he has in approval and managing to rebound. he is tracking with george w. bush who never did recover. >> you notice unemployment hit a five-year low and approval rating is at a five-year low. he is divorced from where the economy is and hard wired in. >> whether it bounces back.

before i go to you next, i want to play a little bit. peter asked them to use a song to describe where president obama is right now and they were actually quite good at this. i was doubtful. >> michael jackson's scream. >> the end of the universe. >> i'm thinking it's been a hard day's night and i have been working like a dog. >> line of fire, johnny cash. >> dazed and confused. it seems like that's what they are lately. >> i was going to say don't let the sun go down on me by elton john. everything is blaming him for everything. >> dan, that gets at what susan and brad were talking about the idea of can he recover? among obama voters, was it surprising that the folks still hold out hope that he can

recover from this. view it as a bump in the road. the question is what gets him out? health care working? is it the improving economy or is he divorced from the economy? >> it's really an important question because as susan said, it is difficult to really bounce back. if the economy does improve, that will help. no question about that. one of the things we have seen in public opinion over the last 60 days really is that this kind of base he had beneath him which is that people thought he was an honest president or a strong leader, some of that eroded significantly and i think that's the question as to whether even if the health care law seems to be working pretty well and even if the economy comes back, whether this sense of him as a weak president or somebody who was too detached has taken hold and it does divorce him from the

forces that are changing the economy. >> fred, when you look at 2014, i know that it's easy to say it's going to be a bad year for the democrats because of health care and the president's job rating. you have this recovering economy. i assume that benefits all incumbent governors first. does it help democrats? >> yes, i do. i think in terms -- >> you thank or know that? >> i think and hope. >> and then think. >> i think with the president, it's all with the fundamentals. will he perform? will the american public think he's done the job on the economy on health care and foreign policy? he needs that trifecta. we are getting it with the economy. the iran deal. i think the other thing is who 2014 benefits. i'm not sure yet. when you listen to the focus group and others, parts and the

sense that we have tried in one direction and another direction. where do we go from here? >> what was interesting, somebody said maybe we need an independent. when you play that out for everybody in that focus group, they came around and said i have to pick one party or the other. >> what has been the experience and raise people's hopes and the tea party, that was an experience of frustration by a lot of americans and some people who supported the tea party that is not what we were buying. that's the worst thing is people don't see a way out and feel powerless to affect their own government. >> those people don't vote? they said they were going to vote. >> most will. frustration needs to come up. the 2014 elections are in the same states. >> the federal elections. >> it's more severe. >> dan, fred, susan, thank you all. we will be back.

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time for my monday takeaway and on this monday it's all about friday's budget deadlines but is this really a strict deadline? both the house and the senate are in session this week hoping to make a deal in the next five days in order to avoid yet another shutdown. temporary funding measures don't expire until january 15th. so while there is a friday deadline, we should call it more of a goal for congress rather than an actual deadline because they're going to have their clean christmas break, no matter what, for the first time in years. so december 13th, it's tentative. but let's take a look at who's behind the deal. there's a 29-member conference committee led by democratic senator patty murray and republican congressman paul ryan and they're going small in order to meet their deadline. but you've got to understand something here, by the way, and let me pause here. these two are doing this deal themselves. everybody else seems to be somewhat left out here. it is literally these two in a room making this deal.

everybody else on this 29-member committee is going to probably just sign off, if they agree. now, let's move on. the goal here is simply to avoid another fiscal standoff like those we've seen in the past couple of years. it's a very low bar. bob bixby says there's no budgetary or fiscal strategy in the choices that murray and ryan have used except the strategy of avoiding any hard choices. so what do we expect this agreement to look like? here's somewhere what it looks like. it's a two-year deal that sets the budget number for the appropriations committees to do their work, which would decide how the nonmandatory spending of the government. it's about a trillion dollars, give or take $10 billion. $990 billion is one of the goals, it could get over a trillion depending on how they buy things back. the committee is seeking alternative cuts in revenue raisers, including fees on airline passengers and adjusting pensions for federal workers. and the democrats do have one

last new demand and that's an extension of unemployment insurance. they're pushing for a jobless pen bits program to continue. 1.3 million will lose the insurance after the program expires on december 28th with an additional 3.6 million by the end of 2014 according to the labor department. chris jansing is next. i'll see you tomorrow. and now my journey across the country has brought me to the lovely city of boston. cheers. and seeing as it's such a historic city, i'm sure they'll appreciate that geico's been saving people money for over 75 years. oh... dear, i've dropped my tea into the boston harbor. huhh... i guess this party's over. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar,

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♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. slick, slippery streets from the midwest to the northeast. a major winter wallop just keeps coming, bringing car crashes, cancelled flights and chaos, and it's not over yet. president obama is in the air right now headed to south africa to honor nelson mandela. security is tight as the soccer stadium there hosts dozens of the most important world leaders. mary landrieu cast the deciding vote for obama care. >> southern democrats under attack. could republicans turn the state red by picking off a few vulnerable dems?